In modern surgery, minimal invasive techniques are used in more and more applications. The development of technology within this relatively new field advances quickly, which results in great training requirements for surgeons. One way of rendering the training more effective is to use computer simulations. Known techniques for providing a credible simulation are very complicated and expensive with respect to computer utility in the form of processor and memory. Moreover, the result is not sufficient to provide a realistic simulation environment. The visual properties that the anatomy exhibits in reality are difficult and time-consuming to recreate in a simulation.
By means of modern computer engineering, it is possible to provide realistic training situations in a virtual environment created by a computer program. In the computer program, a three-dimensional model of the object which the simulation concerns is provided. The user is provided with a projection thereof which should correspond to the picture information which in a real situation is caught by a camera. Within the field of laparoscopy, a camera is used to supply picture information from the patient to the surgeon. The display screen shows the picture that the camera catches of the inside of, for example, the abdominal cavity. All the instruments and the anatomy with which the surgeon works are reproduced by means of the camera and the display screen. The surgeon uses the information on the display screen to control and operate his or her instruments and carry out the procedures which are required to perform the surgical operation. Since the minimal invasive techniques supply information to the surgeon by means of a display screen, the three-dimensional reality is reduced to two dimensions on the display screen. The picture therefore lacks, among other things, the information as to depth that exists in reality. The surgeon has to make up for this loss of information by studying lighting conditions, colours, etc.
This means that all visual information, such as instrument and anatomy, is drawn by the computer. However, many complicated processes within the field of surgery are expensive, if not impossible, to fully simulate in a computer. For example, a large part of the picture information that the surgeon uses in real life, for example light effects and anatomic structures, factors such as breathing and beat of the pulse, which are present in the real situation are difficult to recreate realistically in the computer. Moreover, due to different biological anatomic variations occurring in humans, it is difficult to fully simulate a situation confronting a surgeon when he is to perform an operation. Some efforts have been made to generate simulation systems providing random variations of certain elements, such as the thickness of an artery, in order to provide a more realistic simulation environment. However, such random variations are not enough to fully prepare a surgeon on what to expect when performing minimal-invasive surgery. Moreover, the more alterations of this type that are made during simulation, during simulation, the more computer capacity is needed, making such systems expensive. Hence, a method for providing a more realistic simulation viding a more realistic simulation result, at the same time saving computer capacity, is desired, in order to provide a realistic, cost-efficient system for minimal-invasive surgery simulation.